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 At
3:00 a.m. on September 6, without a formal declaration of war, Indians
crossed the international border of West Pakistan and launched a
three-pronged offensive against Lahore, Sialkot and Rajasthan. There was
a fierce tank battle on the plains of Punjab. The domestic Indo-Pak
conflict transformed into an international conflict and raised super
power concerns.
Pakistani Soldiers
The U.S. suspended military supplies to both sides during the Indo-Pak
war. Both the Soviet Union and the United States took a united stand to
curtail the conflict within the boundaries of Indo-Pakistan from
escalating into a global conflict. China had threatened to intervene and
offered military support on behalf of Pakistan. It was this fear that
both the Soviet Union and the United States pressured the UN to arrange
for an immediate ceasefire, to keep China away from this conflict.
n September, 1965, the long standing border disputes, communal tensions
and conflict over the question of Kashmir flared up in a full-scale war
between India and Pakistan.
The main diplomatic effort to stop the
fighting was conducted under the United Nations auspices and a
cease-fire came into effect on September 23, 1965.
The Soviet Union which remained neutral when India and Pakistan went to
war in September 1965, played the broker afterward at Tashkent.
A Soviet Government communique, formally announced on December 8 that
the Indian Prime Minister Shastri and the Pakistani President Ayub would
meet at Tashkent on January 4, 1966.
The Tashkent conference lasted from January 4 to January 10. The Soviet
Premier Kosygin earned the praise as a peace maker. The main achievement
of the conference was to withdraw, not later than February 25, 1966, all
armed personal to the position held before August 5, 1964.
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